By Gabriel Atumeyi
The government of Akwa Ibom State has refuted a recent media report alleging that it ran an extra budgetary expenditure in the 2019 fiscal year, saying an erroneous version of the state Accountant General’s Audit Report led to the misinformation of the public.
The state’s Commissioner for Economic Development and Ibom Deep Sea Port, Mr. Akan Okon, in a briefing of journalists in Uyo, the state capital, explained that the investigative report in the media was based on an earlier audit report from the Auditor General‘s office which was found to contain erroneous data inputs and later withdrawn for correction in September 2020.
Brandishing a government internal memo of September 2, 2020, Mr Okon further explained that the Akwa Ibom public account report which adopts IPSAS protocol, is made to follow a thorough coding method which must be accurate and cannot be falsified, thereby making it impossible for any expenditure to be made outside the approved sum by the state legislature.
“Every money that was spent in that financial year was in line with the provisions of the budget. There was no extra budgetary expenditure outside what was originally approved by the House of Assembly”, he said.
Expanding on Okon’s briefing, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong, said while the investigative report on the budget was not out of place, it was based on a wrong report that misled the public and created confusion. He added that it was necessary for the issue to be addressed, and being a criminal allegation, should not be taken lightly.
Ememobong who read the content of the government Internal Memo of September 2, 2020, to journalists at the interaction, acknowledged the inputting of the purchase of 15 units of vehicles in the audited report, but pointed that following human error, data were wrongly entered and upon discovery, the Accountant General sought to withdraw the report for due corrections.
He said, “There was a Prado expenditure, but it was erroneously inputed and the Accountant General on 2nd September sent a memo, acknowledging a coding error and demanded a retrieval of the old report, for proper inputing according to IPSAS protocol.”
He further appreciated the role of the media in governance and assured that government will not antagonise the media, but rather made a case for development reportage and good partnership between government and the media community in the state.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Nsikan Linus Nkan, who also addressed the issue, restated the government’s commitment to ensure transparency in governance. He said that Gov. Udom Emmanuel has done a good job in managing state resources, adding that there will always be transparency on issues of budget and expenditure.
365Daily recalls that a report in The Mail Newspaper of Tuesday November 17, 2020, had disclosed that the sum of N4.864 Billion was spent through the office of the Secretary to the State Government, for the purchase of 15 units of vehicles as against N738 million budgeted for.